The invention relates to a sliding roof system comprising a frame, a cover that can be moved into a ventilation position, and a lateral safety screen which in a covering position extends underneath the cover.
With known sliding roof systems a cover can expose a roof opening, fully or partially, due to being movably mounted on a guide rail provided on side edges of the roof opening that form part of the frame. Further, a ventilation position can be established by raising a rear end of the cover.
A body part of a vehicle occupant could become pinched as a gap between the cover and the roof decreases in size as the cover moves to a closed position. This could occur for instance if the vehicle occupant puts a hand on an edge of the roof opening in order to get refreshed by a flow of fresh air. In order to prevent this from occurring, pinch protection devices are installed in known sliding roof systems, which identify jammed objects and halt closing movement of the cover. These pinch protection devices traditionally operate with the aid of measuring current in a drive motor of the cover, by measuring rotational speed of an armature, or by switching mats or safety contact strips, for example.
Devices in the form of safety screens are also known, which cover a gap between a wind deflector and the guide rail at a front edge of the roof opening, and which provide a safe pinch protection when the cover is closed starting from a partially or fully open position. These known devices, however, only exhibit a limited effectiveness when the cover is closed starting from the ventilation position. Due to leverage existing in this situation, known pinch protection devices do not always respond as desired.
This is why some sliding roof systems include a safety screen that makes a lateral gap between the cover and roof inaccessible. From DE 34 42 616 A1 there is known a strip-shaped safety screen and from DE 33 08 065 A1 there is known a safety screen shaped like a concertina. Both of these safety screens are firmly coupled with the cover and thus can only be used with sliding/tilting roofs in which the cover moves under a firm roof sheet during retraction, and cannot be used with spoiler roofs in which the cover moves above the firm roof sheet.
It is therefore the objective of the invention to provide a sliding roof system that ensures a pinch protection when the cover is closed starting from the ventilation position, and which can be employed with a spoiler roof.